I love people who say that we romanticize and pedestal a groomer by talking about Daemon in relation to the fact that we ship Daemyra instead of Rhaenicent or Rhaesaria.
Basically ship Rhaenyra with two of the women who canonically ruined her life in Fire and Blood and who in HOTD, sorry Alicent isn't better and Mysaria... damn where did that shit even come from.
Because apparently it's more moral to ship Rhaenyra with her canonical abuser (Alicent) in HOTD and F&B, or to ship her in a relationship that makes no narrative sense in HOTD, Mysaria therefore, and which in Fire and Blold goes literally taking advantage of Rhaenyra's paranoia to do shit and make a mess of our queen's life.
Rather than with Daemon, her husband whom she loves and who is a healthy relationship in F&B, but somewhat problematic in HOTD, but not because of the character itself of Daemon with Rhaenyra, but because the writers love to write scenes abuse that comes out of nowhere too !
Why am I writing this ? I came across an indecent number of Rhaenicent fanarts and edits, not to mention the related posts which say again and again that Daemon is a groomer (HOTD or F&B) without obviously understanding the definition... My brain is bursting with force.
No hatred towards the artists and content creators for the edits because they have incredible talent. Simply, I need to express my incomprehension in the face of so much success in terms of shipping and especially the comments made on these ships.
"If the writers of House of The Dragon keep gaslighting the audience into thinking Viserys was anything better than a powerful man who stole a young girls future, dreams and physical body in the quest for a son he will never love, I will riot"
Okay, I have one fundamental question for people who think that if it weren't for Viserys, Alicent would have a "future" - what kind? What kind of future would that be? If someone says "marriage and children of love <3" they're being ridiculous. I know the creators want to show that Alicent is THE victim, the truth is that you can count on the fingers of one hand the women in the world of ASOIAF who were not victims of an arranged marriage.
Alicent was the daughter of the second son, who despite being the Hand of the King (which he lost several times) had no lands or wealth, no army. Everything that belonged to the Hightower family didn't belong to Otto, but to his older brother, who was the Lord of Oldtown. If it weren't for Viserys, Otto would have married her off to some lesser lord... And that was it. There would be no wonderful "future", just the exact same life, but much less comfortable, because it would be hard to find a man who would allow Alicent so much disrespect and do whatever she wanted.
Aegon II dickriders want so badly for him to be this relentless badass rising from the ashes of defeat to seize victory and take revenge on his enemies, but in reality he was just a lazy spoiled man child who got his ass fried in his first battle (a 2v1 ambush with Vhagar on his side), spent like half a year high of pain killers, escaped and took Dragonstone solely because Larys Strong did all of the work and planning (and still managed to get crippled by a 13 year old girl riding a baby dragon), got super lucky with Rhaenyra just happening to stumble into his grasp thanks to no doing of his own, and then when he took back Kings Landing could not even hold the city for half a year before his own councilors poisoned him and replaced him with a depressed third grader, because as it turns out he actually has zero leadership skills and was never anything but a worthless puppet that the traitors who raised him up were all too glad to get rid of the moment it suited their needs.
alicent poisoned her children and fed them lies so they could hate rhaenyra and her children. alicent abused rhaenyra so badly she had to go away to dragonstone. alicent's own hatred is what caused her son to lose his eye. alicent helped her father and her son usurp the rightful heir to the throne. alicent's hatred is what caused aemond to go after luke and killing him. alicent is the root for all of rhaenyra's suffering and problems but she's still nice and pleasant enough with that woman? she should want her head on a spike but sure, 20 years ago they were friends and that explains why she would put her own life at risk to meet with that woman and somehow make peace terms with the party that ALREADY sent shitty peace terms wtf girl bye
if it wasnt clear before,
"Rhaenyra always dressed richly, favoring purple and maroon velvets and golden Myrish lace in intricate patterns. Her bodice often glittered with pearls and diamonds, and there were always rings on her fingers"
(young rhaenyra, one of my first f&b artworks 👑)
Emma really describing Alicent as the angel on Rhaenyra's shoulder and Daemon being the devil ?! What the actual fuck ! Objectively, it would be the opposite. But I guess the team of this show only knows demonize Daemon instead of accepting him as the anti hero he is and husband of Rhaenyra who love her and whom she is supposed to love in return. Without forgetting not capable of accept the canonical reality of Alicent which is that she is purely and simply a villain / antagonist, Rhaenyra's adversary and especially only for the pre-war period to then pass the baton to Aegon II as Rhaenyra's adversary. So Alicent isn't supposed to be that important when war is declared. I really hate how this show destroyed the characters and their stories and relationships to feed their pretentious and misogynistic fanfiction (which they ironically think is super progressive).
Fire and Blood:
Rhaenyra - Calls her half-brothers her half-brothers and her half-sister her sweet sister.
Alicent - “Mayhaps the whore will die in childbirth.”
Aegon - “I offered her an honorable peace, and the whore spat in my face.”
Aemond: “…or must we kneel and kiss the old whore’s cunny.” “The whore of Dragonstone, he means.” “The whore on Dragonstone is not the threat.”
House of the Dragon:
Rhaenyra- Refers to Aegon as Alicent’s son.
Aegon - Calls Rhaenyra the ‘bitch queen of bastards, the smug cunt of Dragonstone.’
Criston - Calls Rhaenyra a ‘spoiled cunt’ and a ‘spider who sucks her prey dry.’
But sure, the main conflict of the war doesn’t revolve around misogyny.
According to the way they adapted Fire and Blood in House of the Dragon, we can probably expect some changes in Dunk and Egg:
Dunk is actually the long lost son of Daemon Blackfyre and Dornish Daenerys Targaryen (y'know because EVERYONE has to have their parents explained)
Egg will not be loyal to Dunk, he'll be a total scumbag
Maekar DID kill Baelor on purpose.
Before Baelor dies he whispers that Egg should be King and Dunk must immediately be named a Kingsguard.
Aerion will commit like one actrocity and then get a redemption arc.
Bloodraven and Bittersteel are estranged lovers (this could work) and all this is a bitter divorce
Bloodraven gets his info by selling feet pics. The trees told him that's how Alicent did it.
Shiera Seastar DOES actually eat children and bathe in blood.
Daeron the Drunken will take so much fantasy cocaine/LSD that the whole thing was actually all an acid trip
Daemon II Blackfyre will not serve cunt or camp.
The Blackfyre Rebellion? All happened in one big miscommunication Trope.
The dragons aren't dead, they're actually just finding themselves in the wilderness, you know? They're just really getting into their earthy crunch side.
Maekar Targaryen will do nothing all season. Just serve face and say offensive shit
The Dornish will be an integral part of the season. You will only know about it because of Behind the Episode.
Valarr Targaryen is a socialist and that is why they killed him off.
The mastermind behind all the Targaryen deaths? Baby Walder Frey.
Who really stole the dragon egg at Whitewalls? Time Travelling Penny in disguise.
So fucking good !
Queen Aemma Arryn with her daughter Princess Rhaenyra